Greetings from Los Angeles. I’m back from my trip and am pleased to report another excellent experience on Lufthansa, with one key element missing.
Take a look at the pictures below from my recent Frankfurt to Los Angeles flight. Notice anything?
Same excellent seat, bedding, food, drink, and service. But where’s the rose?
Last flight (with Marcel), the roses were not present, but were personally presented prior to takeoff. I figured that would be the case here, but when they did not show up I asked a flight attendant. They also were not by the boarding door (like the picture above) or in the lavatory, as they usually are.
Oh, catering forgot to load these. I asked but they said it would be too late.
And for whatever reason, my mind just drifted to Act II, Scene ii of Romeo and Juliet (bolding mine):
Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a CapuletRomeo:
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Juliet:
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.Romeo:
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
A rose by any other name would have indeed smelled just as sweet. But there was no rose…there were no flowers.
In all my years of flying Lufthansa, even from some far-flung outstations, this is the first time I have ever missed out on the rose.
But here’s the good news. Everything else about the flight was wonderful. I’m debating whether to post a full review or not since I just published one earlier this month on the same aircraft, but the lack of a rose was not an omen for a bad flight.
And I compensated, in a way. There may have been no rose flowers, but I did enjoy some lovely rosé Champagne…
CONCLUSION
The suite just kind of looks naked without the rose…like it was missing something. Hopefully that was just a fluke and not a sign of things to come. But quite honestly, if I had to choose I’d take the rosé Champagne over the literal rose. Lufthansa continues to offer a consistently stellar product.
They’re cost cutting. Next to go will be the napkin.
LOL.
Jeeminy. That’s a nice plate of Spargel.
Too busy kissing Seal.
Speaking of that, I just missed Heidi Klum a few days prior in LH F.
Took the same flight last week. With the roses. Cabin was 1/2 full and the other two passengers slept at the start of the flight so we were able to consume most of the bottle of the rose Alexandria champagne. It was outstanding.
That Alexandra champagne is truly remarkable.
God, white asparagus. It’s freakin heaven on a plate. I scored an LH first seat from YVR to MUC on Saturday but doubt they are going to have it east bound. One can hope…
You are right about the rose. It’s things like that that make LH so special. For example, the quality of the linens is my thing. The look and feel. Perfectly ironed, soft, just the right size. Not the polyester ones you receive on most First cabins. Gotta love LH.
@Matthew, In your experience when booking Lufthansa first class using points/miles, how often have you seen seat 1A/K open? It’s my dream to fly in the nose of the 748 (particularly in one of those seats) but I’m hesitant since LH only opens partner award seats up only 15 days out.
1A/K are usually taken or blocked, as they are the most preferred seats in the cabin for solo travelers. 1A is often blocked for last-minute HON bookings.
The Rose is missing, its a reason not to fly Lufthansa furst class anymore
L’important c’est la rose …better to ditch the hideous caviar, about which no one ever wrote a song or verse.